big weekend

Normally I am not a very acquisitive person. In fact, I really hate to shop. But I was wandering around on etsy a few weeks ago, checking out the wares of people who had "hearted" me, and I found this. It totally fits with my bamboo love. And when I was a little girl, my mother had wallpaper in our kitchen that was just like this, but green. I LURVE this. It came on Saturday, after we got back from a family hike. Thanks so much, Leigh.


I read a lot of blogs. A lot of hip crafty Portland mama bloggers who wear cute shoes blogs. I feel soo left out of the cute shoe game because I have high arches and those super in-style flats that everyone else is wearing? Um, not me. Cute little skimmers at Target? Not so cute once you stick arch support "cookies" in 'em. I was shopping for running shoes (see next) when I saw these skimmers. And they're Converse All Stars. And they go with everything. I'm a big summer skirt girl. I'll be wearing these a lot. I'm wearing them now. The best part was, TJ Maxx, under $20.


Those shoes I was shopping for? Running. Gotta start doing it again. Before I married, before I left oxford, I ran daily with the dogs. Thought it was 3 miles- 45 minutes. I think that it was maybe more. I have a dog who needs to run. I need to run. These eccos will help, I hope. I have a 6 am date with them tomorrow morning. They were also a steal. Love TJ Maxx for shoes.

A few weeks ago I joined the throngs who bought this book. We've already acted on some of Amanda's ideas, but this big bag of stuff is for my favorite. My little boy is capital-M-musical. We're making a percussion wall. That's attached to a treehouse. All of our instruments came from thrift stores. Daddy is building it so that it spans a little corner between our huge fig tree and a tall old crape myrtle. Mama is in charge of the paint. Little boy is in charge of the noise. If you haven't already read the book and you're a parent, do try to find it. A friend told me that it reminded her of the kind of parent that she'd envisioned herself before she had kids. Me, too.

And this may be the most fun part of our weekend acquisitions. Some good friends,who are (sadly) moving away this summer, have a son a year older than mine. All of this dear boy's clothes end up on my boy (see #1, I hate to shop). He was into all of the same things that mine is into now- full set of Thomas trains? Check. Easter Sunday dress up clothes? Check. Full-body Spider Man floaty? Oh, yeah. Last week Lisa emailed to ask if we were ready for a bike. Her boy'd outgrown his, would we like it? They SURE didn't plan to move it. So today, after church, my little boy took his first spin on a big-boy bike. Took right to it, which is funny, because the trike that I'd pushed for has sat largely unused for the 2 years that we've had it. This afternoon, my little boy was a blur of color as we went around our very large block, peddling as hard as he could while mama broke in her new running shoes, trying to keep up.

New paper goods, shoes, treehouse, bike- what more could we ask for?